Fangs And Fame (11 page)

Aurora

I’D BEEN DREADING THE
Rolling Stone
interview all week. Trey insisted that talking about our personal lives to a complete stranger, who was going to print every word for the world to read, wasn’t really a big deal. I wasn’t buying it. In fact, I couldn’t imagine for the life of me why I’d ever felt like any of this was a good idea. Then I remembered, I’d just gotten back from Florida when Neon had approached us with the idea. I’d been missing Trey like crazy. I was going to have to learn to keep my head, or I might just end up agreeing to do a reality show for MTV. There were probably worse things that could happen, but I couldn’t think of any. As usual, Trey was right. Mostly. I’d been nervous when we’d met the interviewer, but he had been kind enough to come to us.

Trey and I ended up hanging out on the stage area after soundcheck to answer the
Rolling Stone
interviewer’s questions. I felt surprisingly comfortable in that setting. The whole scene was definitely starting to feel like home, strange as that was to admit. Trey made things easy, which is what Trey always does. He sat with a guitar cradled on his lap, randomly picking a melody as we talked. The interview was half over before I realized that he was doing it for my sake. He’d known exactly what to do to put me at ease, and it had worked. The magazine was interested in our story, from the beginning. I talked about my first impressions of Trey, or at least the part that I could share. Some of the details of my side of the story were new to Trey, and he laughed out loud when I mentioned that I had labeled him simply ‘Guitar Guy’ in my head before he had come over to introduce himself. Trey shared that I’d saved him from a group of over-eager fans who were hoping to get some partying in with their favorite local celebrity. We spoke about how I’d managed to get a job doing the band’s album art, and how that made it easy for Trey and I to spend time together. We reminisced about the hours we spent at The Waking Moon where Trey wrote most of the new songs, and I painted away.

The interviewer seemed totally enthralled by our story, and I hoped that meant the article would at least entertain the readers. He asked some hard questions, too, like what had happened that caused us to crash and total Trey
’s car. Luckily, Trey and I had given our agreed upon answers to those questions enough at this point that we sailed right through the story smoothly. Trey avoided further questions about the actual crash by mentioning how grateful we both were for the fans and their outpouring of love and support while he was in the hospital. We also spent a good portion of the interview discussing the details behind our impromptu wedding. Trey explained what had gone into pulling off a surprise wedding, and the nerves he’d faced down when it had come time to propose to me, and then ask me to tie the knot right then and there. I couldn’t stop grinning as I shared my memories of that day. It had been the perfect fairy tale wedding, without any of the stress and headaches that usually come with getting married. Of course, we had to discuss what life had been like since the wedding. We talked about what it was like to be touring as newlyweds, and joked about how having our own bus back was a priority.

The entire interview only took about an hour and a half, but it
’s amazing how much life you can cram into ninety minutes when you’re asked. When we finished, Trey invited the interviewer to come back into the lounge and meet the rest of the guys and have something to eat with us. He would be staying for the show, as well, so Trey wanted to make sure he was fed and taken care of. He witnessed one of Catalyst’s infamous ping-pong matches, and eventually joined in on one at Chase’s insistence. I hoped the interviewer had been expecting the full Catalyst experience when he’d arrived tonight, because he was definitely getting it.

After
Ping-pong, Jonas was eating a plate of the pasta that the venue had had delivered from a local restaurant. I figured tomorrow was a great time to have another sketching/painting lesson, so I asked Jonas if he’d make the announcement on Twitter. He whipped out his phone and played with it for a minute before saying, “Consider it done.”

“
You’re the best,” I told him. I still had some time before the show was going to start, so I told Trey that I was going to sneak out and grab a bite of something real to eat. Trey grinned at me and wished me luck, which probably sounded a little strange to Jonas, who almost certainly believed that I wasn’t a big pasta fan now, which wasn’t true, but noodles and sauce just weren’t going to cut it for me tonight.

I began walking, heading away from the venue.

I’d only been walking about fifteen minutes when I saw my target. She was in her early thirties and just locking up shop at a business she either worked at, or owned. I smiled as I approached her, and she smiled back, giving a friendly little wave while she fought with the lock on her door. I was reminded of the stubborn lock in the back door of The Waking Moon.

“
Excuse me,” I said to her. “You wouldn’t happen to have a phone I could use, do you?”

“
Yes,” she said, sounding a bit exasperated. “If you hadn’t just asked me, I would have forgotten that I left it inside. Come on in.”

“
Thanks,” I told her. “I hope it’s not too much trouble.”

“
This door didn’t want to lock, anyway,” she insisted as she led the way inside. I glanced around quickly as I followed her in, noting that the windows were covered, making for good privacy. I closed the door behind me and caught her by surprise when she picked up her cell phone from a small stand across the room and turned to hand it to me. I had my fangs in her neck, piercing the skin gently, before she could react. I held her up, steadying her with one hand and taking the phone from her with the other. Her blood warmed me up from the inside, renewing my senses and my mind in a way that nothing else can. I didn’t take more than I needed, and I healed the bite wounds when I had finished. I projected into her mind a vision of me making a phone call and then I held her phone out to her.

“
Thanks again,” I said to her. “My cell died an hour ago.”

“
No problem,” she said, regaining her senses. I walked back to the door with her and when she fumbled with the key in the lock again, I gestured for her to let me give it a try.

“
I have a stubborn lock like this at home,” I said as I wiggled the key until it turned freely. “There you go. That should do it.” I slid the key from the lock and handed it back to her.

“
Thank you,” she said.

“
Have a great night,” I told her with a smile, walking away. I went to the corner of the next block over and waited in the shadows until she had gotten in her car and drove away. Then I started back up the street in the direction of the venue again. The cool air made me feel even more alive now than it had moments ago before I’d fed. As far as fresh blood, I’d be set for the rest of the week now. I just had to find a way to get Trey and I a bag, or bottle of blood, to tide us over every day until we got our bus, and our way of keeping a blood stash back. I hoped that would be sooner rather than later.

Trey

I HADN’T BEEN ON stage for all of five minutes when I felt the little buzz of power vibrating in the back of my skull. I was careful not to let it throw me off my game as I casually searched the crowd for the source. My first thought was that my vampire stalker was back, but she hadn’t generated a power buzz like this one. Aurora was backstage tonight – not like I’d mistake her power signature for anyone else’s – but it was clear that at least one vampire was standing in the crowd. When the song we were playing ended, I took my guitar off and walked back to the stand Chase and his drums were perched on. I grabbed a bottle of water and took a big drink, just to give myself some time to think. O’Shea started telling the crowd a story – leave it to him to fill in the silence – and I turned back around to scan for potential vamps again while he spoke. It took a moment, but I spotted him. He was sitting in the third row from the front, off to the left. He was even wearing a black suit, kind of like the ones the Emissary wear, but I couldn’t tell whether it had their emblem embroidered on the breast pocket or not. I met his gaze and held it, letting him know that I’d found him. He stared right at me in that way that vamps do when you just know they’re trying to read your soul, one wispy layer at a time. He wasn’t just here for the show. That much was obvious. If he was Emissary, what on earth was he doing at a Catalyst concert? Certainly the Emissary had more important things to do than check up on Aurora and I, like tracking down Malena, for one. And if he wasn’t Emissary, well, that was even more confusing. I wished Aurora were sitting there in the front row. At least that way I would know she was trying to decipher the same questions I was. At least that way I would know she was safe. Instead, she was enjoying the show on a screen from the backstage lounge tonight, while simultaneously snapping pictures of several paintings to upload to her website so she could ship them back to The Waking Moon.

Then I realized there were two of them.

The second one was dressed like the first and was sitting in the lowest section off the floor to my left. He met my gaze as well, and I had to force myself to look away so the camera wouldn’t catch my stare-down on the big screens. O’Shea’s voice broke through my thoughts, and I heard him asking the crowd if it was okay if we slowed things down for a minute. The cheering that resulted was my cue to at least try and forget about the vamp in the crowd.

Like that was going to happen.

I set my water bottle down by my mic stand and leaned into the mic. “Let me see those cell phones in the air,” I said as the guys starting playing the intro to “Sweet Disguise.” I strapped my guitar back on and waved one hand back and forth to direct the crowd until the verse began. As I sang, I scanned the crowd again for the mystery vamps but they were both gone. I tried not to worry about it, not to wonder where they had gone and why they’d left in such a hurry, but it was easier said than done. I couldn’t for the life of me imagine why they were here. Even if I’d wanted to warn Aurora, I wasn’t capable of sifting through all the thought trails in the building to find hers. I’d tried on several occasions, but I could never quite manage to hone in on her specifically through all the energized, almost frantic thoughts, coming my way – more than half of which were about me.

The rest of the set seemed especially long after that, which made me feel like crap. The crowd was really into us, and I did my best not to be distracted. I
’m even pretty sure it worked, but I was more than relieved when we finished the last song before the encore. I made my way to the dressing room at last. Aurora was sitting at her laptop, and jumped up when we all came into the room.

“
I’m ready, I swear,” she said, hurrying over to the makeup chair as Chase plopped down in it for his zombie makeover.

I changed into my tattered suit, suddenly feeling more than a little ridiculous about the paranoia that had rattled my brain throughout the show.

Aurora was here. She was fine. In fact, everything seemed fine.

I started to wonder if I
’d seen the vampires in the crowd at all. It didn’t make sense, anyway. Why would a vampire make an appearance in the crowd just to completely vanish moments later? Maybe I really had imagined the whole thing. Maybe I was in worse shape than I realized. I made a mental note to down some blood from the stash first thing after we finished here. I couldn’t help but scan the crowd again for the vamps when I took the stage as a zombie for the encore. No buzzing power, and no Emissary-looking mystery vamps. I was mostly relieved, and I focused on giving the fans the best zombie performance I knew how to give. Aurora was waiting for me in the lounge and we headed for the bus together. It wasn’t until we were about to climb the bus’s steps that we both felt it at the same time.

A power signature.

Aurora froze, her foot hovering just above the bottom step. She looked over her shoulder at me and said, “We have a visitor.”

I gestured with a jerk of my head for her to step back, and I climbed up into the bus, Aurora following right behind me. This power signature wasn
’t strong enough to be the vampires I’d seen from the stage tonight, which brought me back to my first assumption.

Crystal.

I could hear the tinny sound of a vampire heart beating. The speed of it increased as I walked along the bus. I held up a finger over my shoulder to signal for Aurora to wait. She did as I asked and stayed back by the kitchen area as I proceeded down the little hallway that led to the bedroom we shared. Just as I’d suspected, Crystal was waiting there for me. She was sitting on the little sofa at the bottom of the bed, grinning like a maniac when I stepped into view. It was like I’d jinxed myself just by thinking about her tonight.

“
Crystal,” I said. “What are you doing?”

“
Waiting,” she said, pouting at me as she got to her feet. “For you.”

“
You can’t just show up on my bus like this,” I said to her as she stepped closer to me and put her hands on my shoulders. “I don’t even know you.”

“
But our blood calls-”

“
Our blood calls to each other,” I said with a sigh. “Yeah, yeah. I remember.”

“
Send her away,” she said, referring to Aurora.

“
She’s my wife,” I countered. “I’m not sending her anywhere. She lives on this bus. With me.” Crystal didn’t seem to be paying any attention to what I was saying as she gazed up at me, moving a hand to touch my hair. “Look, I know this is hard for you to hear, but you and I can’t be together.”

“
We could, though,” she said slowly, taking my hand and stepping backward, trying to pull me with her.

“
No,” I stated, planting my feet. “We can’t.” I stepped closer to her to make her look me in the eye before I continued. “I need you to hear this, Crystal,” I said. “I love Aurora. I’m going to spend eternity with her.”

Crystal froze just then, her eyes burning into mine.
“You don’t love her, you just love that she brought you into the dark,” she said, but her voice was wavering. It was the first sign that her resolve was crumbling.

“
That’s not true,” I said. “I’ve loved Aurora since the first night I met her. I love everything about her, and I didn’t know she was a vampire until I’d fallen so hard and so deep there was no turning back. She saved my life, in more ways than one. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be here now.” Crystal stared at me, but I saw her eyes soften. “Somewhere out there there’s a vampire who’s just waiting to meet you. He’ll make you happy like you deserve to be happy. I’m honored that you’re such a big fan, and I’ll be eternally grateful for that, but I can’t be that guy for you. Do you understand?”

She nodded, almost imperceptibly, and I smiled for her.
“I hope she deserves you,” she said.

I wanted to say that I was the one who didn
’t deserve Aurora, but I thought better of it, not wanting to push my luck. I led the way to the front of the bus and saw that Aurora was nowhere to be found. She’d obviously decided I was handling things and thought it would be better if she wasn’t standing there to antagonize Crystal. I opened the door of the bus and Crystal climbed down the steps one at a time. “Can I call a car for you?” I asked her.

“
No,” she said. “I’m parked not far from here.”

“
Okay,” I said, putting my hands in my pockets.

“
I have to say, this isn’t how I imagined my evening going,” she said as she started across the parking lot.

“
Take care,” I said, waving as she walked away. She’d crossed the road before I felt a breeze and looked over to see Aurora suddenly standing at the bottom of the bus steps.

“
It’s not too late to change your mind,” Aurora teased, nodding in Crystal’s direction. She climbed the bus’s steps and added, “I know her blood is calling to you and all that.”

I laughed and grabbed her hand, pulling her up against me.
“You’re the only one who calls to me.”

“
Don’t,” she said, biting back a laugh. “There’s just no way to say that without it sounding creepy now.”

“
You mean my blood doesn’t call to you?” I said, pretending to be insulted as I closed the bus door.

“
Great. Now I’ve started something,” Aurora said, trying to walk away from me.

“
But you brought me into the darkness,” I teased as I followed her.

“
I brought you into it, Decker,” she said with a laugh. “And I can take you from it.”

She didn
’t push me away when I spun her around to kiss her. She pushed the blending of emotions that happened during the kiss into my mind, which always catches me off guard and makes me feel a little dizzy. When we pulled back it took me a second to recover, and then I said. “She may be crazy, but I gotta hand it to her, she was a great kisser.”

Aurora
’s jaw dropped and I couldn’t help the laugh that burst from my mouth at the look on her face.

She smacked me on the arm and said,
“You suck, Decker.” But she was grinning in spite of herself.

“
Now we’re making fang jokes?” I added with a laugh, earning another smack. She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help it and started laughing with me.